System and method for billing for transactions conducted over the internet from within an intranet

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for performing centralized billing for transactions conducted by a user on a terminal (101) connected on an Intranet (103) with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) (115) connected to the Internet (104). A Firewall Gateway (105) interconnects the Intranet and the Internet and removes the terminal's IP address from packets transmitted by the user's terminal to the ISP on the Internet. A Session Manager (116) stores in a database (117) the associations between the IP address of the user's terminal and the user's identity, and between the IP address and the Connection ID of the connection established between the Firewall Gateway and the ISP for an ongoing transaction between the user and the ISP. A Billing Platform (120) receives a signal indicating the cost of the transaction and the Connection ID associated with the transaction from the ISP. The Billing Platform then accesses the database (117) of the Session Manager to determine the identity of the user from the Connection ID and an account of the identified user is retrieved in a database (127) associated with the Billing Platform. The account is then billed for the cost of the transaction and forwarded to a billing entity (130-1-130-5) for billing to the user in accordance with the user's pre-established billing mechanism.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of billing an account associated with a user's identity for a cost of a transaction conducted between a user through a terminal connected to an Intranet with a merchant which provides goods and/or services through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which is connected on the Internet, the terminal being assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address that is included in packets transmitted by the terminal, the IP address being removed by a Firewall Gateway that interconnects the Intranet and the Internet from packets transmitted from the terminal onto a connection on the Internet established between the Firewall Gateway to the provider, the connection being identifiable by a Connection ID that unambiguously identifies the connection, the connection ID comprising IP addresses and port numbers associated with each end of the connection, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a signal that associates the user's identity with the IP address assigned to the terminal;   receiving a signal that associates the Connection ID with the assigned IP address;   storing the associations between the assigned IP address and the user's identity and between the Connection ID and the assigned IP address;   receiving a billing signal that associates the cost of the transaction identifier with the Connection ID;   using the connection ID associated with the billing signal, determining the user's identity from the stored associations between the Connection ID and the assigned IP address, and between the assigned IP address and the user's identity;   billing the account associated with the user's identity for the cost of the transaction.   
     
     
       2. The method of claim 1 wherein the transaction involves providing the user with an interactive service. 
     
     
       3. The method of claim 1 wherein the transaction involves ordering and receiving an intangible good in digital format by the user's terminal from the ISP on the Internet. 
     
     
       4. The method of claim 3 wherein the intangible good is software. 
     
     
       5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting the cost of the transaction billed to the account associated with the user's identity to a billing entity for billing to the user in accordance with a billing mechanism established by the user. 
     
     
       6. The method of claim 5 wherein the billing entity is determined by the billing mechanism in accordance with the cost of the transaction. 
     
     
       7. The method of claim 5 wherein the billing entity is determined by the billing mechanism in accordance with the type of transaction. 
     
     
       8. The method of claim 5 wherein the billing entity is determined by the billing mechanism in accordance with the identity of the ISP. 
     
     
       9. The method of claim 5 wherein the billing entity is determined as a function of the cost of the transaction, the type of transaction, and the identity of the ISP. 
     
     
       10. The method of claim 1 wherein after the step of determining the user's identity, the method further comprises the steps of: determining whether an account has been established by the user for billing for transactions conducted on the network; and   authorizing the transaction with the provider if an account has been established.   
     
     
       11. A system for billing an account associated with a user's identity for a cost of a transaction conducted between a user at a terminal connected to an Intranet with a merchant which provides goods and/or services through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which is connected on the Internet, the terminal being assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address that is included in packets transmitted by the terminal, the IP address being removed by a Firewall Gateway that interconnects the Intranet and the Internet from packets transmitted from the terminal onto a connection on the Internet established between the Firewall Gateway to the provider, the connection being identifiable by a Connection ID that unambiguously identifies the connection, the connection ID comprising IP addresses and port numbers associated with each end of the connection, the system comprising: a manager comprising a server and a database for receiving and storing the associations between the user's identity and the IP address assigned to the terminal, and between the connection ID and the assigned IP address; and   a billing platform comprising a server and a database, the billing platform server receiving a billing signal from the ISP that associates the cost of the transaction with the connection ID, said billing platform server using the connection ID to retrieve from the manager database an association between the connection ID and the user's identity to bill an account in said server database associated with the user's identity for the cost of the transaction.   
     
     
       12. The system of claim 11 wherein the transaction involves providing the user with an interactive service. 
     
     
       13. The system of claim 11 wherein the transaction involves ordering and receiving an intangible good in digital format by the user's terminal from the ISP on the Internet. 
     
     
       14. The system of claim 13 wherein the intangible good is software. 
     
     
       15. The system of claim 11 further comprising at least one billing entity to which the cost of the transaction is billed to the user in accordance with a billing mechanism established by the user. 
     
     
       16. The system of claim 15 wherein the billing entity is determined as a function of the cost of the transaction, the type of transaction, and the identity of the ISP.